We use JavaScript to display content and to speed up the loading of TechNutty, without it you may find that some of the site does not respond properly, please consider enabling it or switching browsers.

The first quadcopter has flown across The English Channel

The first quadcopter has flown across The English Channel

A commercial drone company called Ocuair British has set a new world record this week, launched the first quadcopter to fly across The English Channel.

It completed this 35 km length trip in just 72 minutes, which is actually quite impressive given the fact that it is a drone.

Alongside crossing The English Channel, the drone also recorded the longest single official flight of a quadcopter in the world this week.

Ocuair explained more:

The flight took place on the morning of the 16th of February 2016, on an unusually sunny and calm morning Richard and his team set off for a beach near Wissant in Northern France. After some trouble getting close to the beach he finally got the drone in the air and began the flight back to the 35 kilometer flight back to the UK.

Although scheduled to take about 80-90 minutes the journey wasn’t easy. The English Channel is the busiest shipping lane in the world and the drone and the boat had to dodge between two large vessels. With such tight margins Richard couldn’t afford to make large deviations from the most direct route.

The flight was going well as he passed the point of no return, 17km, from here the distance to the UK was shorter than returning to the original launch position so there was no escape plan. At 23km something strange happened. The drone suddenly lurched to the left and Richard had to disable the GPS guidance and take manual control of the flight for the final 20 minutes. Flying without GPS assistance was extremely challenging.

You can watch the video below for a quick look, and hit up the source to find out even more.